This one time when I was at the bar (and by one time, I mean Tuesday night), I got into one of those taboo conversations about feminism and the treatment of female characters in fiction. The conversation inevitably made its way to comics; I mean this is me after all. Then my nemesis, we’ll call him Baby Bird, made the obvious and seemingly inevitable hasty generalization that men are just as objectified as women in comics. And well, that kicked me into high gear with points about inequity, marginalization and visual representation (see Kelly Thompson’s articulate essay that inspired my vein-popping rant).

Baby Bird may not have been up-to-speed on the gender bias prevalent in comics and fiction in general, but the discussion on the topic has grown exponentially over the past several years. Much of that conversation is spent calling out the bullshit. Rightfully so. While I live…

I think a point is often made better with humour. I thought the use of the word lamp was made extra-amusing as it was ‘lamp-shading’ the 2D characterization. I was falling into this pit in my own Steampunk novel, as I had a single female character with a ‘harem’ of male characters. Now I have given her some female friends, family and colleagues.

I have to fight against my own cultural upbringing. It pervades everything if I don’t make a conscious effort.